I wish I was the first one to note it, but it was Thomas Monson who brought the idea that "when performance is measured, performance improves" into my bailiwick.

Yet to force people to be more obsessed with recording what they do is one very sure way to demoralize & intimidate just about everyone!

But to answer the question of how to improve productivity, on a PERSONAL level I have discovered that privately micro-blogging about what I do every day is the best way to ensure that I am always productive. Over time, voluntarily choosing to record what I do not only encourages me to do many more things, but in the technical world using tools like the "About Time" software allows me to diagnose though technical problems, as well as to generate the related reporting.